This guy is taking level readings to find the best spot for the new dam to take advantage of the natural fall in the land and maximise water collection.

This thing that Graham is peering through, is like a pair of really strong binoculars.

What you can’t see is Anthony, way out in the paddock, holding a measuring stick.

Graham can then read the stick measurements and calculate how the land falls.

Sometimes it’s quite surprising – where you think it is quite low and water lies, can often be one of the highest points! Can you explain that to me?

This is a huge piece of machinery isn’t it?! It’s a D9 bulldozer and it’s about to dig a great big dam for us.

Last year was a terrible year, east of Esperance, season wise. We hadn’t had run off rain for nearly 18 months (that’s rain that will put water into the dams) and our two key dams were dry.

We sent nearly all of cows and calves away on agistment because we’d run out hay and didn’t have enough water for the cattle. We hoped that if we off-loaded them, we would have enough for the sheep.

We made the most of having dry dams and had four cleaned out of mud that had clustered in the bottom, stopping the dams from holding as much as they could.

We hope never to have a year like that again, but it’s unlikely with the forecasters predicting our part of the world is going to get drier over the next decade or so. We’re don’t want to get caught out again, so we’re doing something about it.

Once the dam has been finished and it’s full, it’ll hold more water than I could possible imagine and I’m looking forward to that!